The Main Menu Page

The home, or Main Menu, page of the WebPAC must be named mainmenu.html.

Innovative delivers the WebPAC with the default Main Menu page. For a current example of this form, see the appropriate example set in WebPAC Example Sets and Photoshop Files on CSDirect.

Your organization can:

• edit the default Main Menu page
• create a Main Menu page
• create Main Menu pages for each language supported by your organization

Structure of the Default Main Menu Page

Innovative provides an example WebPAC site when your Web server is set up. If you do not have a customized WebPAC site to load into the lives/screens directory, Innovative loads the example site there as a default. Innovative recommends customizing the default with information specific to your organization.

Valid tokens for this page are:

Token	Description
<!--{toplogo}-->	The system replaces this token with the HTML defined in the TOPLOGO Web option.
<!--{availlim}-->	The system replaces this token with a Limit to available checkbox in the search tool. The label text (Limit to available) is set with the AVAILLIM Web option. NOTE This functionality is not supported on INN-Reach Central Servers.
<!--{indexsort}-->	If the SORT_BROWSE Web option is defined, the system replaces this token with a sort type selection dropdown menu listing the library-defined labels for the sort types in the order defined. NOTES This token requires a JavaScript-enabled browser. The SORT_BROWSE Web option does not work with keyword searches.
<!--{msg}-->	The system replaces this token with any system messages.
<!--{netli_ask}-->	If your library has set the Set netLibrary Code system option, the system replaces this token with a checkbox that allows the user to prelimit the searches to netLibrary eBooks.
<!--{netli_force}-->	The presence of this token instructs the system to automatically limit any searches to netLibrary eBooks.
<!--{nosort}-->	This token enforces browse list sorting in the order specified by the first option that your library has set in Advanced Searching: Ranking Options option. The user has no opportunity to change the order. This token can appear anywhere on the page. If you do not use this token, your form must contain a specially-formatted HTML <form> tag.
<!--{patron}-->	If your library uses My Account, the system replaces this token with a "you are logged in as" message defined by the STAFF_LOGGEDIN_MSG web option for staff users. This message does not appear for patrons because WebPAC automatically logs them out if they navigate to mainmenu.html while logged-in.
<!--{RSS:[settings]}-->	The system replaces this token with an RSS feed where [settings] is specified using the following colon-delimited, elements: [URL]: [MAX_ITEMS]:[DISPLAY_DESCRIPTIONS]:[DISPLAY_DATES]: [DISPLAY_IMAGE/TITLE] Token Element Description [URL] The URL of the RSS feed. [MAX_ITEMS] The maximum number of items to display from the RSS feed. [DISPLAY_DESCRIPTIONS] This element controls the display of the RSS feed item description. If this element is set to '1' or 't', the WebPAC displays the RSS feed item description. [DISPLAY_DATES] This element controls the display of the RSS feed item date. If this element is set to '1' or 't', the WebPAC displays the RSS feed item date. [DISPLAY_IMAGE/TITLE] This element controls the display of the image and title for the RSS feed. This element accepts the following settings: 0— Show neither the title nor the image. 1— Show only the title. 2— Show only the image. 3— Show both the title and the image. For example: <!--{RSS:http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Science.xml:5:t:t:3}--> Images for Items The <!--{RSS:[settings]}--> token does not control display of titles and images for individual items. Use the feed configuration file to control that display.
<!--{scope}-->	The system replaces this token with a dropdown list of scopes defined in your Scope Menu.
<!--{search}-->	The system replaces this token with a search tool. If your library offers keyword searching as a primary search method, you can substitute advanced searching tokens for the <!--{search}--> token. For details, see Offering Keyword Searching from the Main Menu.
<!--{sort}-->	The system replaces this token with a dropdown menu on the page allowing the user to select a sorting option, such as by Date, Alphabetically, or by Relevance, for the retrieved records. See Advanced Search for details on the sort options available with this feature.
<!--{submit}-->	The system replaces this token with the value of the ICON_SUBMIT Web option.
<!--{botlogo}-->	The system replaces this token with the HTML defined in the BOTLOGO Web option.

Editing the Default Main Menu Page

You can edit the default Main Menu page based on the services your organization provides. Within the comments in the default Main Menu page's HTML code are tips and instructions to help you tailor the page to your organization's needs. Note that the default Main Menu page contains HTML code linking to:

• Course reserves

Remove or comment out the code for the link to Course reserves if your organization does not have the Course reserves product.

• Other resources

Uncomment the code linking to other resources if you have customized resources_index.html to link to Z39.50, interlibrary loan, and so on.

• My Account

Change the text of the /patroninfo command link from "My Account" to "View your patron record" if your organization does not have the My Account product.

• KidsOnline

If your organization has the KidsOnline product, uncomment the code linking to KidsOnline and insert the correct URL and /kids command link.

Your organization can edit the default Main Menu page to add links to other resources, such as:

• Interlibrary Loan
• other library systems
• a university's or city's home page
• journal citation and other reference databases

Your organization can edit the default Main Menu page to remove links.

Location of Graphics Files

Graphics files are usually stored in the live/screens directory on the Innovative server.

If the graphics file is not stored on the Innovative server, you can specify a different server machine with an HTML tag like the following:

<img src="Resources/Images/http://www.othermachine.edu/images/home.gif">

Note that if the graphics file is not stored on the Innovative server, it may load more slowly, and if the machine storing graphics files is inaccessible, the WebPAC pages might not display properly.

Creating Main Menu Pages

The WebPAC site requires a page called mainmenu.html.

The only required element of mainmenu.html is a link to the OPAC Menu page.

Review Maintaining the WebPAC before designing your WebPAC Main Menu page.

Offering Keyword Searching from the Main Menu

If your library offers keyword searching as the sole searching method from the main menu, you can substitute the <!--{search}--> token with the following advanced search tokens:

Token	Description
<!--{advancedsearchbody}-->	The system replaces this token with the <body> HTML tag and attached JavaScript to use with the <!--{advancedsearch}--> token. If you are using the <!--{advancedsearch}--> token, you must replace the the <body> HTML tag with this token.
<!--{advancedsearchformbegin}-->	The system replaces this token with the <form> HTML tag and attached JavaScript to use with the <!--{advancedsearch}--> token. If you are using the <!--{advancedsearch}--> token, you must replace the the <form> HTML tag with this token. The <!--{nosort}--> Token If you omit the <!--{nosort}--> token from this form, replace the <!--{formbegin}--> token with the following <form> HTML tag: <form class="unpadded" action="/search/" method="get" name="search" id="search"> or <form class="unpadded" action="/search/X/" method="get" name="search" id="search">
<!--{advancedsearch}-->	The system replaces this token with the advanced search tool that includes the dropdown selections for indexes to search, text input boxes, and Boolean operators. This token requires the <!--{advancedsearchbody}-->, <!--{advancedsearchformbegin}-->, and <!--{advancedsearchformend}--> tokens.
<!--{advancedsearchformend}-->	The system replaces this token with the </form> HTML tag to use with the <!--{advancedsearch}--> token. If you are using the <!--{advancedsearch}--> token, you must replace the the </form> HTML tag with this token.

 

Creating Main Menu Pages in Languages Supported by Your Organization

The mainmenu.html file contains a link to the OPAC Menu page for the organization's default language. Organizations that have acquired the ability to provide access to their catalog in languages and character set encoding schemes other than the default can provide the WebPAC in those languages and character sets.

For each additional language or character set coding, you must create another Main Menu page. The additional Main Menu pages must follow the naming convention mainmenu_lang.html, where lang is the three-character code for the specific language (the code must be in lowercase).

For example, an additional Main Menu page to provide access in:

• Spanish must be named mainmenu_spi.html
• French must be named mainmenu_frc.html

See also:

the LANG Web option